2 person interviews: where to look?

F

FatBird19

Well-known member
Ok, so I have to set up an interview where 2 subjects are explaining product details to potential buyers. It would be easy if there was only one person, but I don't know what to do with 2. They are sitting down in chairs next to each other and talking. If I have the camera head on both of them, where should they look? I thought that looking into the camera could be cheesy(maybe not) most interviews I see have the people talking to an invisible 3rd party just off camera.

Maybe I shouldn't. Maybe I should have them talking right to the customer. Thoughts?

I know what to do if there was only one person on screen; I'd have them looking 30-45deg away from the camera.

I'm having a problem though where to put the line of sight since there are two people onscreen.

I was actually thinking of doing the same as if there were one person; have both people onscreen looking in the same direction 30-45 deg from the camera.

again, thoughts?


thanks
 
When a subject is looking off-screen, they're talking to the interviewer... you, the filmmaker. With 2 people it's the same. They're both talking to you, forgetting the camera is there.

Justin
www.beyondtimemedia.com
 
jchenier said:
When a subject is looking off-screen, they're talking to the interviewer... you, the filmmaker. With 2 people it's the same. They're both talking to you, forgetting the camera is there.

Justin
www.beyondtimemedia.com
Click to expand...


ok, now where should I place the camera for this interview? In front with them looking at the camera (the audience) or off to the side with them talking to me?
 
They need to look off-camera. Talking to the audience only works if the subject is a reporter talking to the audience, or the host of the video (instructional, etc.). Sometimes you want your subject looking off-camera right or off-camera left.

When you are planning your interviews together, think about how you want your subjects facing... left or right. Say you're doing a documentary about Enron. The evil CEO and Financial Officer and accountant should all be facing the same way: let's say left for this example. All the people who got burned by them, lost their jobs, pensions, etc. would face right. Your audience might not conciously catch on, but there's a sense of cohesion that happens.

For the evil administration of Enron, you would setup your tripod and camera, set your chair off to the right a couple of feet, place the evil Enron interviewees chairs facing you (the camera will be at their 10 o'clock...).

Even if you don't preplan the way they are facing before the interview, you can flip the image in post, as long as you don't have visible text, clocks, or are too close on their clothes to see the way the shirt buttons up.

Make sense? I'll do up a diagram and post it for you tomorrow.

Justin
www.beyondtimemedia.com
 
FatBird, I would recommend you get this book:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/02...f=pd_bbs_1/002-3449244-5368849?_encoding=UTF8

a professor of a class I took here at USC wrote it, and nepotism aside, it is one of my favorite references for exactly these kinds of questions.

placement of objects on the screen is one factor in telling a visual story. There is also color, line, space, movement, etc.

You should take these all into consideration.

that is, you could sit them staggered, one on a stool, one on a chair, one slightly behind the other, etc. Or, you could find that a flat side by side solution conveys what you want to convey.

The important thing is, what do you want to convey? As was mentioned above, are they talking to us, the audience, or you, the interviewer. Are they selling something? does one of them have a closer relationship to the product than the other, etc? Where is the product in relationship to them? What else is in the frame? How do you want to light them? What color shirts are they going to wear? Etc.

Be a director: storyboard. Ask yourself, what is the story? What is this scene (in this case interview) about? Then set yourself some rules. For example, you can say whenever we see the product, it will always be frame right. The actors will be frame left, when they look to the right, they are looking at the product, when they look at the camera, they are looking at the buyer... etc

Every option is possible. You CAN look at the camera. Erol Morris documentaries do it all the time. It's more intimate. But it can be awkward if the people you are shooting are uncomfortable.

Do some research, look at magazines and other documentaries or infomercials like yours, see what you like and what you dont.

You have the tools, you make the rules :)
 
I may be stating the obvious (and I am just a small town photographer and have very few posts) but there are a lot of infomercials on late at night that use a similar set up to yours. It just depends on how you’re going to shoot them, who are your 2 subjects? If one is a host then defiantly he/she would be looking at the audience at times. The guest (possibly expert) on the other hand would look at the host when the host asked them a question. But this, like many other rules in videography, can be broken depending on the style that you are going for. But if your intention is to not rock the boat and have a consistent style with other infomercials I would have a kinda news interview type feeling to the shoot (maybe to add a little credibility). Also as mentioned above the lighting, how to demonstrate how this installation company is the best or has advantages over the competition and the pace of the video all have factors in to how you’re going to shoot it. You’re the most important sells man/woman, remember the audience is Numero UNO don’t forget about them. Just my .02!
 
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